She didn't run.
No one was more shocked than Gwen was that she didn't.
That wasn't to say she didn't think about it.
She'd run to Hobie's place without thinking. Just… instinct, honestly. Hadn't really considered what she was going to do when she got there. Most likely just try to hide from everything, if she was being honest. Gwen hadn't thought that far ahead.
'And isn't that the story of your life?' she thought bitterly as she felt the effects of the sting she'd been struck with wearing off. She was able to blink and shift but it took a long time to do either one. Frozen in time… that's how the other Spider had described it… 'You never really think ahead, do you? Always living in the moment.' Her father had always complained about that, especially when Gwen got into… well, not trouble because she was a decent enough kid, but situations. Like the time when she'd been four and been desperate for the good cookies her dad left in the cupboard above the fridge. Climbed all the way up there and enjoyed her snack… only to realize she was terrified of getting down. 'No exit strategy' is what her father called it. He'd tried to drill it into her head but… nope.
She always did that. Acted without thinking, without planning. Jess had-
Gwen shut that line of thought off right away. She didn't want to think about… her. If she did she'd only get mad.
"So," Hobie said as he cut into his food, "I'm assuming that you are here to talk and not to bring me back to the Society. Because if you are here to do that I'm going to be very annoyed." He shot her a heavy-lidded stare. "Because if I call him Chris will come back and he won't hold back mocking me. That Yank can GLOAT."
"You're… friends… with… Spider… Chaos?" Gwen got out, hating how she sounded. Her words came out slow. Slurred. "Damn… sound… drunk… or… re-"
Hobie smacked the table hard. "Gwendy…" he warned.
"Sorry…" she got out, grimacing. Slip of the tongue… she was trying to be more understanding because lord knew she'd suffered enough bigots in her life, but sometimes…
"And yeah, Chris is a friend. Or was until I stuck my neck out for you. He'll probably forgive me… probably. But when it comes to his kids he's overprotective. Speaking of which… what he say true?" He leveled a cold stare in her direction. "You really try and send a kid back to his world to die?" He at once shook his head. "No… I said I wouldn't ask. That you had your reasons."
Gwen slowly shut her eyes. It took 25 seconds. The world went blurry and then dark for about a minute before she slowly worked to open them again.
"…yeah," she got out. "I did. I…" she began to shake her head, it getting a bit easier. "I mean… Jessica was there and she did all the talking about… I didn't speak up."
"That's not like you," Hobie commented. "You always speak your mind."
"…not anymore," she murmured, thinking about her friend and how she'd embarrassed him by trying to help him. Led him to believe he was weak because he needed her to defend him. Made him think he was pathetic and that she was annoyed at having to save him. Wanting him to be something else.
She couldn't remember what she'd said after that last encounter. Only that… she hadn't said what she should have.
What she should have.
Had she even told him goodbye? Or had she been too focused on dealing with the Kingpin's goons to even offer Peter that?
"Jessica… she said that it was the right thing. That his Earth would help him. Better than glitching-"
Hobie snorted at that. "She lied to you then. Chris has been exploring the multiverse longer than Miguel has."
"What do you mean?" Gwen asked, confused.
"He never tell you?" Hobie asked before letting out a laugh. "Course he didn't. O'Hara doesn't want to admit that he ain't in control." He leveled at her a cool stare. "Society has only been going strong since that little dust up on Miles' Earth."
Gwen blinked at that. "…no. No, that's not right. Miguel-"
"He was a busy bee, wasn't he?" Hobie said with a dark chuckle. "Didn't you think it odd that they rushed you out into the field? You got… a few days? At that?"
"Hours," Gwen admitted. "It was hours." She slowly began to sit up, feeling her body ache from where Chris had grabbed her. She rubbed her cheeks before flexing her hand, making sure he hadn't sprained her finger. "Jessica had just gotten me settled when-"
"An emergency alert came in?" Hobie asked with a single raised eyebrow. "Yeah… same for me. That's what told me that it was all a crock. Too set up. Too staged."
"Right…" Gwen murmured, not wanting to admit she'd fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.
"But Chris man…" Hobie said, shaking his head, "that man has been bouncing around the multiverse for years. There is a reason he's called Spider-Chaos, after all, and it ain't just because he annoyed the Society. Surprised Jess had the guts to go after him, after what happened with him and Miguel?"
"What do you mean?"
"Miguel went after one of his kids, a baby. Last survivor of his world before Galactus ate it." Gwen didn't have a chance to ask what a 'Galactus' was as Hobie continued. "Chris captured him, dumped him on an Earth without shrimp, then warned the Society if they came after him and his kids again he'd dump every secret they had on their loved ones. Reveal their identities and all that-"
"That… bitch…" Gwen whispered.
"Yeah, Chris loves ta go nuclear-"
"Not him," Gwen said, slowly standing up, cracking her back. "Jessica. That was one of my first missions. That's why she took me… I was supposed to be the lead but when I saw the kid… and I swear, I didn't know it was another Miles, I didn't I wouldn't do that! I never would!"
'Except you did,' her own thoughts taunted. 'Except you did…'
"I thought I'd messed up," Gwen said. "We got caught and Jessica stepped in… except she wanted me to piss him off so he'd go after me instead of the Society!" She smacked a pillow off of Hobie's couch. "Damn it!"
"Don't feel bad… sadly it's a tale older than any of us. Find someone out and down, in need of a helping hand, and tell them that you can help fix things up. Give them a place to stay, a shoulder to cry on."
"You have a place to stay?" Jessica asked her. "Someone you trust?"
"No," Gwen said from the corner she was curled up in, her tears having dried up after the adrenaline of the fight had fled her body.
"There are some people… friends of mine… they might be able to help."
"And all they do is ask for your help with a few things. Simple things. You want to help out because it keeps your mind off what happened."
"Let me come, please!" Gwen begged.
Jessica considered her for a long moment. "You do… and you listen to what I say."
"Only they begin to remove those gifts and offers… put a price tag on them. Make you do just a little bit more… and a little bit more. The old 'frog in a boiling pot' thing."
Gwen frowned as she met with Peter B. Miguel had asked her to bring him in, to get him to join the Society. She wanted to go see Miles, desperately so… but she had to wait. She needed to repay them all…
"Till you're completely engulfed by the bloody thing and you can't see up from down."
Gwen flopped down in the chair beside him, not even reacting with Hobie dished up some food onto a second plate and nudged it towards her.
"So… what brought you here?" he asked.
Gwen swallowed at that.
"Because… I'm assuming it's the kid?"
"Don't call him that," Gwen said quickly. Hobie smirked though and she felt her cheeks heat up. "He doesn't like being called a kid."
"He is a kid. So are you."
"I am not."
"Yeah, you are," Hobie said with a sigh. "That's why Chirs shouldn't have gone off on you like he did. You're still growin' and all that and he should have remembered that."
"I'm a superhero," Gwen said, hating how she sounded so petulant.
"You're a teen girl who got the entire weight of the world put on her damn shoulders. Just like Miles. Chris is an adult. O'Hara is an adult. He was an adult when he got his damn powers so he doesn't understand."
Gwen fell silent. The terror of Miles' injuries… the horror that Peter had realized what she herself didn't want to admit… the helplessness Chris had caused… the anger at Jessica and Miguel as it became clear she was just a pawn…
"I'm tired," Gwen finally said. "That's why I came here. I'm… I'm tired and I just want to sleep."
"Couch is right there. You slept on it enough."
But she shook her head. "I can't sleep though. Because I close my eyes… and all I see is Miles breaking my webline." Hobie raised an eyebrow at that. "When… how much of the chase did you see?"
"None of it. I quit the moment I realized Miguel was going to force that boy to watch his father die. Because don't think he wasn't going to. Miguel watched that kid he kidnapped die-" Gwen opened her mouth to defend Miguel only to snap it shut, hating that had been her first response/reaction, "-so he wants everyone else to suffer too." He groaned. "Bloody hell, we were all in a cult. Chris will never stop crowing." He glanced at her. "But yeah, didn't see anything. I quit."
"Right," Gwen said. "So Miles got outside and I realized he wasn't firing off webbing… he must have run out. So I fire out a webline to try and catch him. You know… standard stuff if someone is falling. And I get him…"
She could see that moment replying in her mind, joining with the Lizard slowly turning back into Peter.
Miles looking at her with such… anger and betrayal… before snapping the line.
"He broke it. He'd have rather died then let me help him." She looked down at her hands. "Story of my life, isn't it? I reach out too late and people break off from me. Because they see what I really am. I try to be all kind and aloof and acting like I know what to do and I can fix things… but really I just mess everything up. People… people get hurt because of me so they figure 'Why not just bypass her and hurt myself?'."
"I ain't hurting myself," Hobie stated.
"Yet," Gwen muttered.
"…okay, there ain't no way for me to sugar coat this: you messed up. You messed up big time. That boy is clearly head over heels for you and you decided to just break his heart by chipping away at it." He shot her a dark look. "Don't think I didn't notice you hinting that I slept with you when you introduced us."
Gwen grimaced at that. She… well, she wasn't sure why she had done that. Maybe because Miles had been too eager to be next to her and it scared her because she was worried they'd be drive apart? That it would be easier if he was the one to run off instead of her? Because she was mad he was whining about parents loving him and she wanted him to suffer?
She didn't know. Especially because she didn't want him to actually disappear. Wanted him by her side.
'You never think ahead,' she thought.
"Why do I get the sense that isn't the full story?" Hobie asked and Gwen winced at that. She truly wasn't looking forward to relieving the final part of the chase.
But she had too. She owed Hobie that.
"Miguel ended up fighting him on the train… it had been a while since I'd seen him." She grimaced, remembering that the last time she'd Miles before that final horrible fight was Jessica smashing into him with her motorcycle. "He and Miguel were fighting and Miguel managed to pin him down and… I don't know what Miles said to him but it must have really upset him-"
"Or the great big vampire was roided out of his mind," Hobie said, derailing Gwen's thoughts. "Come now, you must have noticed it. He secretly injecting himself?" When Gwen just stared at him Hobie sighed and walked over to a cluttered desk, rifling through the papers before coming back with a photo. "This is Miguel when he first started the Spider Society a year ago."
Gwen stared at the photo and felt her mind come to a screeching halt.
It was Miguel's costume but the body was… wrong. More like Peter B's body or Noir's than Miguel. Muscular but… regular. Not the towering mound of meat that was 2099.
"No, that ain't a variation either. That's him." Hobie left the photo on the table next to Gwen's plate. "Man is jacking himself up real good on some chems, makin' himself bigger and stronger… but that rubbish messes with one's head, ya know?" He made the multiverse sign for 'crazy'. "Tell me you haven't noticed the mood swings."
She… she had. Miguel had been getting more angry and lashing out more. She thought it was just stress but…
"So he had his roid fit and tried to kill the… kill Miles," Hobie said, quickly correcting himself.
"Not… not at first," Gwen whispered, getting to the worst part of the fight. The part where she'd known that she'd truly lost Miles and they were never going to be able to fix what they had. Where he learned the truth she had been hiding from him. "Miguel got upset and he told Miles how he was an anomaly. How he wasn't supposed to be Spider-Man."
"Well that's a loud of shit," Hobie said with a scoff.
Gwen looked down at her plate.
"…Gwendy," he said, his tone filling with horror that made her eyes burn, "tell me you spoke up and told that bastard he was wrong."
Her silence filled the air. Filled her damnation.
"Are you kidding me?" Hobie snapped, standing up and smacking the table with his palms.
"He… he's a good person, Hobie, and he's doing what he can but-"
He cut her off. "I remember when you first told me about the kid. Do you remember?" Gwen couldn't bring herself to look up at him, to meet his gaze. "Anyone can wear the mask. That's what you said. He said it. That Spider-Man's aunt said it. Anyone can wear the mask."
"It's not the same," Gwen whispered. "Miguel-"
"FUCK MIGUEL!" Hobie roared and Gwen's head snapped up… and it took her far too long to realize she'd been preparing to strike Hobie over insulting Miguel.
Miguel… the man that might have killed Miles.
"God, Chris was right about you," Hobie said and Gwen's face fell. "You are all wrapped up in his cult so bad you can't see up from down!" He grabbed the half finished food and marched over to the trash, scrapping the food off before tossing the dishes into the sink. The clatter was so loud in the silence of the flat that it made Gwen jump. "He's wrong," Hobie said. "You. Me. Miles. Even Miguel. We aren't Peter Parkers. So does that mean we can't be Spiders?" He didn't look at her as he spoke. "You are so twisted up in what Miguel has been pedaling you can't even see the truth anymore, can you? Remember what its real?"
She… she just stood there.
"Lay down on the couch," Hobie said, making it clear that wasn't a request. "Lay down and get some sleep. And in the morning we're gonna go see some friends of mine, make sure that you are actually thinking straight again." He huffed. "Probably need to bring tissues because you're gonna be sobbin' when you realize just what you've done." He moved towards his room, not even stopping as he snapped, "You run… and we're done. And you won't have anyone left to turn to. And don't think Chris ain't waiting for a chance to catch you again."
Gwen stood there for what felt like hours before finally, painfully, she dragged herself to the couch. She slowly settled down on it, grabbing a pillow and wrapping her arms and legs around it, pulling herself into a tiny ball.
And as the nightmares descended on her of Peter and Miles tearing into her, asking why she couldn't just be a friend to them… she prayed that they would be real.
Because at least that meant they were alive.
~MC~MC~MC~
"He… he killed him?"
From beyond Hobie's apartment the Spot stared through the open window, having heard everything.
Someone had killed his Spider-Man.
Killed him before the Spot could get his revenge. To make him suffer.
All his plans. All his work. Rendered utterly meaningless because some pathetic drugged out fool named Miguel had decided that he wanted to do the deed first. He even claimed that his Spider-Man wasn't really Spider-Man. And if he wasn't Spider-Man… wasn't real… then that meant the Spot wasn't real in his eyes. Didn't matter. Was just a pathetic thing.
He trembled.
"Oh..." he whispered, the malicious rage building in him.